Things I'm Loving Right Now (aka my mom essentials)

I planned to write a real post about our outing into Geneva yesterday with Donovan in the snow, and Debbie's baby shower this afternoon, but D's being a bit, um, cranky, so I'll just post this entry that I wrote a while back and had been waiting for an uninspired posting day to publish. Enjoy, while I go relieve Zach of the hysterical monster that's inhabiting my son's body.

Lansinoh Breast Pads-- Perhaps there's other brands easily accessible in the US that don't suck, but here there don't seem to be any. Mom brought me a box of these from the US and they seemed great, but I didn't think much of it until I had Zach buy me some other brands at the store and discovered how crappy they are. They're basically cotton balls, shaped differently, and yes they absorb but then you have a wet mass of cotton right up against your skin. Not cool. The Lansinoh brand pads are not only way thinner and more discreet, but they absorb well and feel dry. MUCH better. So much so that I scourged the internet and found a UK site that would ship me several boxes of these for $12 shipping. Worth. Every. Penny.

GlamourMom Nursing tanks-- I ordered a couple of these while pregnant, figuring I wanted to have them around b/c they seemed pretty nifty, but didn't want to spend a fortune before knowing how well they really worked. I have to say that I wasn't a big fan in the first weeks of nursing-- the extra material seemed to just get in the way and I almost found them annoying. If it hadn't been winter and so cold I would've probably preferred to just hang out in a nursing bra alone to have the least amount of stuff to hassle with while trying to figure out how to feed him. But now that I've more or less got the hang of it, I'm in love with these tops, and ordered 4 more a few days ago. I predict I'll basically live in them over the next year.

My Slings-- I have 2 pouch slings (New Native and RockinBaby Pouch) and just got a Moby wrap that I'm still working on figuring out. The slings have been absolute lifesavers, anytime D's fussy from being tired I can just pop him into the sling and he'll calm down right away (ok, sometimes it takes a couple minutes of bopping and bouncing around, but seriously, 5 mins max) and then often he'll go to sleep. And then I have the freedom to walk around and use one arm completely freely (to be most comfortable the sling has to go over my shoulder and part of my upper arm on one side to distribute the weight better, so that arm's somewhat constricted, but still available). I'm looking forward to playing around more with the Moby wrap, as that one goes over both shoulders and should be more comfortable and versatile (esp once he can hold his head up). I'm also tempted by a ring sling, which at first intimidated me b/c of the extra fabric, but now I'm thinking they look pretty useful, too, esp since you can adjust them freely (meaning Zach and I could use the same sling easily). Not familiar with "babywearing?" Go read this post.